How to Make the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie in 12 Easy Steps

Here’s how to make those chewy, soft, bakery-style cookies in your own kitchen.

Thinkstock/ThitareeSarmkasat

Use an ice cream scoop to get evenly sized cookies.

It always seems impossible to recreate those thick, chewy, soft chocolate chip cookies that you buy from your favorite bakery whenever the craving strikes. Every time you try, you convince yourself that the bakery must use some magic ingredient that you can’t buy that makes the cookies taste so much better than your attempt. But we promise you that the staff is not using witchcraft to make them, they just have all the insider knowledge. There are several secrets behind baking your most-loved chocolate chip cookies, and we’re here to reveal them to you. With this power, you will soon be able to have your ideal cookie cooling on a wire rack in your own kitchen.

In order to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie, you need to start with the best ingredients. High-quality dark chocolate will make the most delicious, molten chocolate chunks; flaky sea salt sprinkled on the cookies adds an addictive savory taste; and using light brown sugar as well as granulated sugar gives the cookies a nutty, caramelized flavor.

Besides mixing carefully, beating thoroughly, and folding gently, there are several other, often unwritten, steps that you should incorporate into every cookie recipe. One of these secret recipe additions is chilling the dough before you bake it. This may seem unnecessary, and an irritating hindrance that is only delaying the time between now and you being able to eat your perfect chocolate cookie, but we promise that this step makes a huge difference to the final result. Another small but important tip is to take more care than you imagine necessary to ensure that you don’t overbake the cookies. After seven minutes in the oven, check them every minute, until they reach that perfect moment where they’re chewy, soft, golden, and the chocolate is still molten.

Put your apron on, set out your ingredients, and get ready to bake the cookies of your dreams. We promise that by following these simple steps, you’ll make a batch of cookies which look, taste, and smell even better than you had ever thought possible.